3 ms·

The paper, which is open access and worth reading (skip to the discussion at the end if a layperson). http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.stem.2014.04.014 http://dx.do

The paper, which is open access and worth reading (skip to the discussion at the end if a layperson). http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.stem.2014.04.014 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.stem.2014.04.014 The more interesting part of this to my eyes was the material difference between 24 hour and 72 hour fasting in human chemotherapy patients, in that the former didn't do anything to the measure of immune cell populations and the latter did. Intermittent fasting is nowhere near as well studied as calorie restriction at this point in time, so it is interesting to see these mechanisms emerge. Now this is chemotherapy immune suppression, not aging immune dysregulation. I'll be mildly surprised to see the exact same result in people with age-damaged immune systems, as the character of the damage is very different. The animal results for aging rather than chemotherapy here are intriguing but that's all. There's still a lot of work to be done to arrive at the level of comfort with this effect that exists for other aspects of calorie restriction or intermittent fasting. But given that (a) obtaining human data on fasting and immune cell population in old people is a comparatively low cost study to put together, and (b) the group involved here seems to have a good flow of funding to study intermittent fasting in a broader context, I'd expect to see that data emerge at some point in the next few years.

CreRecombinase 12y ago
I couldn't access the article with that link, but I could with this one http://www.cell.com/cell-stem-cell/pdf/S1934-5909(14)00151-9.pdf http://www.cell.com/cell-stem-cell/pdf/S1934-5909(14)00151-9...
e12e 12y ago
Not having read the article, I wonder if this might be a common response in mammals -- if you're too sick to eat for two whole days, immune system "assumes"[1] it's missed something, and tries desperately to get you back to healthy enough to forage/hunt...? [ed: well, that's entirely wrong, based on the article -- it's the body killing off as much dead weight as possible in order to hang on a bit longer -- then healing back up when food is avaliable. Oh, well :-) ] [1] By which I mean there is some complex time-delayed protein-signal-avalanche that is somehow tied to long periods without nutrition...
Florin_Andrei 12y ago
> The more interesting part of this to my eyes was the material difference between 24 hour and 72 hour fasting in human chemotherapy patients, in that the former didn't do anything to the measure of immune cell populations and the latter did. If you do zero-calorie fasting, there are some important changes around or after day 3. Hunger disappears. Metabolism is low, muscles are relaxed. The mind tends to more easily stay focused on a single topic. There's a sense of clarity and ease, and an odd kind of energy. It's quite a contrast with the increasingly frantic frustration prior to this time. This is all from a subjective standpoint, of course, but it's well correlated by most people who have done it. It seems quite obvious that there are major changes around day 3. I'd love to see more data from studies.

CreRecombinase 12y ago

I couldn't access the article with that link, but I could with this one http://www.cell.com/cell-stem-cell/pdf/S1934-5909(14)00151-9.pdf http://www.cell.com/cell-stem-cell/pdf/S1934-5909(14)00151-9...

e12e 12y ago

Not having read the article, I wonder if this might be a common response in mammals -- if you're too sick to eat for two whole days, immune system "assumes"[1] it's missed something, and tries desperately to get you back to healthy enough to forage/hunt...? [ed: well, that's entirely wrong, based on the article -- it's the body killing off as much dead weight as possible in order to hang on a bit longer -- then healing back up when food is avaliable. Oh, well :-) ] [1] By which I mean there is some complex time-delayed protein-signal-avalanche that is somehow tied to long periods without nutrition...

Florin_Andrei 12y ago

> The more interesting part of this to my eyes was the material difference between 24 hour and 72 hour fasting in human chemotherapy patients, in that the former didn't do anything to the measure of immune cell populations and the latter did. If you do zero-calorie fasting, there are some important changes around or after day 3. Hunger disappears. Metabolism is low, muscles are relaxed. The mind tends to more easily stay focused on a single topic. There's a sense of clarity and ease, and an odd kind of energy. It's quite a contrast with the increasingly frantic frustration prior to this time. This is all from a subjective standpoint, of course, but it's well correlated by most people who have done it. It seems quite obvious that there are major changes around day 3. I'd love to see more data from studies.